Author: THE Yankee Aggressor

  • Sippy Cup Friendly

    Four studs posted on a Sunday morning.

    Across the bridge, Buttermilk to T. Pottersfield to North Bank and back to the parking lot.  7 miles covered by the PAX

    NMM:

    Pulled into the parking lot this morning and who did I see.  Sippy Cup.  Yep, this is only the second time that Sippy has posted for a Sunday morning trail run.  The last time was more than two years ago.  Great to have Sippy out there.  Speaking of pulling into the parking lot when I was coming down the hill I spotted Saab’s RR in front of me.  In a move that would have made Bleeder proud,  I pulled to the left, passed Saab and took a right turn into the parking lot just ahead of him.   Saab was also back on the trails for the first time in a while and the second time in the last four months.  I know he was happy to be out there…we were certainly happy to have him back in the running PAX.  Shakedown continues to lay the miles down…he stayed with Sippy for the first half and then Sippy had to make an appointment so left Shakedown in the dust…..

    TYA Out

  • Spider Swim

    10 posted on  what should have been a fall morning for a Spider run.

    The Thang

    Out the back entrance of UR to River, right on Huguenot right on Westham Station, follow to the end (at River Road, 4 milers turn around and head back, five milers hit one more hill off Westham Station and back, 6 milers hit two more hills.

    NMM

    All started out fast this morning including Bleeder and Swirly who did one or two laps across the lake.  Swirly warned all that the sweat would start 3 steps into the run and he wasn’t far off.  It was downright sticky out there today.  By the end of the run, we all looked as if we had taken a dip in the lake.  In fact, if we had taken a dip, we would have been dryer.  Folks were a lot slower on the way back and a few or us, including YHC, opted for a shorter run than planned.

    Quite a stink out there on the road.  Roadkill smell was prominent from end turn at the end of Westham Station all the way to the top.  It didn’t help that it was an out and back since we had to repeat the road and the smell.

    Toucan is losing the weight and gaining speed these days.  He had a really fast start then faded a little due to a hamstring strain.  Saab was back out on the run this morning and kept pace with YHC (quite an accomplishment for anyone).  He put in 5 miles and seemed no worse of the wear.  The stairs today/tonight will tell the real story. (keeping my fingers crossed).  Lockjaw not spotted on the course, but is scheduled to Q RAMM for the next several weeks.

    Announcements.

    Marv to host post Dogpile workout on the 21st.  All 2.0s are welcome to come out.

    Upchuck running a second workout on the 21st as well.  Double dip if you can.

    TYA OUT

     

  • A midsummer run in October

    5 studs and YHC posted on a sticky Sunday morning for a trail run.

    The Thang:

    Northside to T. Pottersfield to Buttermilk and back.

    NMM

    2 Pax, Hardywood and Upchuck took the actual route today (I think).  YHC was hurting after the first mile and opted for a straight cross off Belle Isle instead of T. Pottersfield.  The other PAX opted to take a loop up to the war memorial and then back to the route.  Not sure why they visited war memorial, but at least two of the PAX members hated the addition.

    Swallow got bit by a bee on the way back. Although he is luckily not allergic, the bee sting still had affects and he limped back to the parking lot.  Hardywood and Upchuck were doing the 1 minute walk, 3 minute run technique.  YHC opted for walk up hill and run down and flat for the final 5 miles.  Either way, it was crazily humid out there today.  Felt like a mid August run only this was mid October.

  • Weehawken

    14 Studs posted for a morning in the gloom at Mary Mumford.  Weather was 70 and sunny.

    The Thang

    5 milers, right on grove, left on Malvern, left on Patterson, Left on St. Christophers, Left on Three Chopt, Left on Grove.  Six milers same route except left on Roseneath instead of Malvern.

    NMM

    Swirly and Singer did the 8+ mile route this morning, getting in 3 on Grove pre run.  They are definitely gearing up for something.  Gomer Pyle was flying today.  He passed YHC with over a mile to go and I did not see Sippy and Splinter for another 5 minutes. Hutton ran with me for about half the run until he got bored with my pace (or lack of talking).  Next time, he will have pick Lab Rat as a companion.  Welcome Mongoose to the fold.  He joined the bikers on their route today and seemed to survive.

    There seems to be something going on with South Siders.  I have given up trying to give Lugnut directions as her generally ignores them from the get go.  Today’s instructions were pretty simple,   Five turns, all lefts.  The were on mostly major roads as well, so pretty simple to follow.  Honeymoon, completely ignored my route and made a route of his own that was 5.5 miles.  I blame him for pulling Spit (a Daville boy) into the same route.  I am going to have to start posting to the southside runs and see what happens over there?

    Ok, so the name.  I am trying to emulate LockJaw (insert your favorite tapering joke here)  and his naming techniques.  He always has a fancy name for the route, and to my knowledge, it has little to do with anything (he might argue otherwise, but despite my 12 years in public schools, 4 years in college and 2 years in grad school I can’t follow the logic).  So, I like the name Weehawken as I did some consulting there in the past, so the route gets its name.

    Announcements:

    Don’t forget Viral tool bank event this weekend

    Hampton roads anniversary and a Cville 4 mile mens run coming up

    TYA Out

  • 54 and Sunny

    9 stars emerged from the fartsack to post at Spider Run.

    The Thang:

    Six Milers: Out back side of lake, up the hill, up Boatright, right on 3 Chopt, left on Grove, right on Oak, to the end of oak across Cary to Hillcrest, one loop around hillcrest and then back.  Five Milers: turn around at end of Oak, Four Milers: Turn around at Tuckahoe.  Lug nut: as always, do whatever the F you want.

    NMM:

    Swirly is on a mission.  He pumped in two laps around the lake to begin with and then another one at the end.  He was recovering from the first two loops, turned around and we were gone.  Fortunately, YHC had told Swirly what the route was the night before, so he was able to find us out on the road.  The turn on the Oak is always confusing.  The road sign is just hard to see.  Most, except maybe Swirly, caught the turn the first time around.

    On the way back to the lake, YHC saw Bleeder and Lugnut at the end of Grove. I was closing fast and caught them both at the turn.  I passed Lugnut at the turn and pulled even with Bleeder.  Upon seeing YHC, Bleeder turned on the after burners.  He put about 20 yards on me on the flats. but I started to catch him on the downhills.  I was never quite able to catch him, despite my best efforts.  As I have said in the past, Bleeder is easy to catch, but impossible to pass.  Man that boy is competitive.

    Sippy seems back to his usual form, almost.  He starts slow, then passes all the four and five milers within the first mile.  Then he reels in the six milers at some point. By the finish, he is even with the fastest of the runners.  Just to cool down he runs a mile or two backwards, at a pace faster than my forward run.

  • Back to the hills

    The Thang, and NMM

    We ran.

     

  • Quiet Trails

    2 runners posted for a Sunday trail run.

    The Thang:

    Buttermilk to Belle Isle to North bank and back to parking lot.

    NMM

    Exceptional to have Saab back on the trails.  It has been a couple months, at least since Saab has been spotted running on the trails around RVA.  He has been missed.  Conversation was Lab Rat friendly today, but only two pax were there, so Lab Rat did not get to partake.

    Overall, the trails were pretty quiet today.  More bikers than normal, but a lot less runner.  See you out there soon.

    TYA Out

  • COP in Swirly’s front yard

    2 stalwarts posted on a labor day morning for a workout.

    The Thang::

    Curb crawls with derkins and incline merkins.  Mosey to Swirly’s house with 10 squats at each telephone pole with run in betweens.  Halfway to his house, we switched to lunges between poles then followed by a run between poles.  Arrive at Swirly’s house.  Mosey to his front lawn for COP.  SSH x 20, LBC x20, Don Quixote x10, Imperial Walkers x 20.  Write notes on Swirly’s windshield, take the shovel flags from the back of the truck, prop one up near his truck and the other at this front door with the paper underneath.

    Mosey back towards the park.  10 copperhead squats at each pole.  1/2 way back switch it up to 30 WWII setups at first pole, 30 carolina dry-docks at second and 30 squats at third.  Reduce number by 5 at each successive pole.  Arrive back at the AO and Mosey to front of building.  Elevens with dips and jump squats.  Mosey to start.  Flutter kicks x20, Rosalitas x20.  COT and out to coffeetaria.

    NMM

    Showed up at the AO at 515, Bleeder, but no Swirly.  530 comes along, no Swirly.  TYA asks Bleeder who has the Q, finds out it was not taken, so TYA takes the lead, but both decide that a trip to Swirly’s was in order.  For the COP in front of the house, we had a typical COP, we called cadence, probably a little louder than we normally did.  About halfway through the COP, Bleeder looked at me with a big smile in the house and said “Two idiots in a friends front yard working out, yet it is so much fun”.  I could have stayed in the front yard and exercised for hours and been incredibly happy.  It is the little things in life that makes life fun.

    Felt like the days of the past.  It has been since the early days of F3 RVA since there was a workout with just Bleeder and TYA.  Brought back memories of some of the first RAMM runs and a few other Mary workouts.  One good observation…we are a lot faster an in a lot better shape than we were back then.

    Coffeetaria was awesome..

    TYA Out.

  • No Blowfish, but a Hootie showed up

    7 Studs showed up on a wet Sunday morning.

    The thang:

    Over the bridge to the access road near the river, to Belle Isle, lap around Belle isle, to northbank trail and back to the parking lot.

    NMM

    Great to have Hootie out with us from Charlotte this AM.  He is a great runner and was awesome to have out there with us this morning.  He is running on  a 6 person BRR team next week, so we will hopefully see him next week.

    Although Hootie was born in Richmond, he has spent a majority of his life in NC.  That became quite apparent to YHC right from the start.  We all exchanged pleasantries, then Hootie began to describe his purpose for this trip to Richmond and ultimately the river.  After a minute of explanation, YHC turned to Circle k and asked him to translate Hootie’s answer.  Although it was in english, it was with a thick NC accent and many NC colloquialisms.  It reminded me or the show “Moonshiners” where the NC, VA and WV boys dialogue in english is subtitle in english.  (he honestly wasn’t that bad, just want to introduce him to TYA).  Later in the conversation he fought back with many barbs hurled at the Yankee.  Turn about is fair play, and I did start this battle in Richmond VA.

    Bleeder took a slightly shorter (or longer) route this morning.  On the way back, he skipped the Belle Isle loop, but took the railroad track back to the pump house.  At one point I think he had to cross a creek or stream and got a bit wet in the process.  Circle K opted of the safe route an took the bike out this morning.  Great example of “active tapering” right there.

    TYA OUT

  • Tapering…just say no!

    12 stalwarts posted for a Wednesday run.  Weather was perfect for a Wednesday afternoon, 79 and sunny….70 and sunny in my mind

    The Thang:  Run the hills for 45 minutes. YHC tried to give directions, but that did not go well…people did whatever they wanted.

    NMM:

    12 is definitely a record for this year at the hill run.  After seeing the PAX today attack the hills, everyone seems ready for the BRR.  A little 2nd F at TYA’s house post workout…Circle K was the cook.

    TYA Out